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“Sea of Red” #1 Sells Out at Image

BERKELEY, CA — 15 APRIL, 2005 — Readers stormed into their comic shops over the past several days, pillaging shelves in search of copies of Rick Remender, Kieron Dwyer and Salgood Sam’s SEA OF RED #1. The lucky ones snared copies of the vampire pirate horror saga. The unlucky ones had to wait for new copies to be shipped from the Diamond warehouse.

Now word comes of a complete sellout of the debut issue, despite Image Comics’ typically aggressive overprinting on the book.

Naturally, Remender is excited to see there’s an audience for such a unique book.

“The response to SEA OF RED has been amazing,” says the creator. “It’s gratifying to see it as one of the best reviewed books of the year. We all did our best to make this a well drawn, genre defying, high seas-horror story with real characters. With the entire run from issue one now sold out it seems to have paid off.”

The critical reception for the book has been as phenomenal as reader reaction, typified by Randy Lander of the Fourth Rail, in his “Best of the Week” review of the title:

“SEA OF RED is not just a really good pirate comic or a really good vampire comic, or even a really good fusion of two genres. It’s just an example of excellent comics storytelling, and as a bonus, it is set in genres that don’t get a lot of exposure in the medium.”

Marc Mason, from the Movie Poop Shoot’s Should It Be a Movie, raves:

“SEA OF RED is a striking piece of entertainment and should find a happy niche in the marketplace. If you like horror, vampires, pirates, or combinations thereof, pick it up and you’ll be happy.”

Image Comics Executive Director Eric Stephenson is glad to have Remender and crew on board.

“We were nothing short of thrilled when Rick, Kieron and Sam brought the book to us,” says Stephenson. “We’re even more excited all their hard work is being met with such enthusiasm.”

In response to the rapid sales of the first issue, and in anticipation of continued swift sales, a trade collecting the first four issue of SEA OF RED is being rushed to press to coincide with the release of SEA OF RED #5. The collection, NO GRAVE BUT THE SEA, will retail for just $8.95, and will be in stores on July 27.

SEA OF RED tells the story of a young sailor turned undead by the crew of a cursed Pirate ship, his century-spanning search for revenge and the tricks that time plays on the mind. The series is monthly, with Remender and Dwyer co-plotting the book, and Sal providing art over Dwyer’s breakdowns. Each issue is printed in a red ink, on special stock designed to approximate the look of a weathered treasure map. MORA artist Paul Harmon is stepping in as the guest artist on SEA OF RED #5.

SEA OF RED #4 is solicited in the April issue of Diamond PREVIEWS, and will hit stands on June 29. SEA OF RED #5 and SEA OF RED: NO GRAVE BUT THE SEA will be solicited in the May issue of PREVIEWS, and will both be in shops on July 27.

Image Comics is a comics and graphic novels publisher formed in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Since that time, Image has gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. There are currently four partners in Image Comics (Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino), and Image is currently divided into three major houses (Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions and Image Central). Image comics and graphic novels cover nearly every genre, sub-genre and style imaginable, offering science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today.